Facebook is a social networking site allowing users, businesses, and organization to communicate with each other. Users can follow other users or groups allowing up to the minute information to be exchanged immediately. Additionally, this global network is organized into smaller networks classified by city, state, school, or organization.

Also known as Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary, RSS is a Web feed. It provides a way for readers to organize a syndicate of news and information from multiple Web sites. To combine and read your feeds, there is software available for your desktop or mobile; also available are Web-based readers on sites such as Google and Yahoo. These are generally known as "feed readers" or "aggregators," and will check the feeds you follow regularly for new items.

Twitter is another social networking site, however unlike Facebook, it doesn't contain as much information. Instead, Twitter is driven off simple, short, and concise tweets (mini post) to update followers with information. For personal use, it is used to let people know what you are doing. Recently, organizations have started creating Twitter accounts to keep its followers updated on current news and events within.

Step 1.

Head over to facebook.com and make an account if you don't already have one.

Step 2.

Once you are logged in, search for "Southern Rural Development Center" or click here to go directly to our page. Once you have found the SRDC Facebook page, click the button at the top of the page that says "Become a Fan."

Step 3.

That's it! You're done! You are now following the SRDC on Facebook. Any updates we post will appear on your Facebook homepage in the news feed.

Add our RSS feed

Step 1.

There are a lot of different programs out there that can be used to view a RSS feed. They can be found for your mobile, desktop, Web-based, and more. For the purpose of this walk though, we will be using Google's Reader. First, please head over to google.com and log in if you aren't already. You may need to create an account.

Step 2.

Once logged in, click on "More" in the menu at the top of the Google page. A menu will appear and then select "Reader." This will take you to Google's feed reader.

Step 3.

After you have navigated to Google's feed reader, towards the top left of this page you should see a button that says "Add a subscription." Clicking on that button will bring up a small box under it asking you to enter a URL to the feed you wish to add. "http://srdc.msstate.edu/rss/news.xml" is the URL to the SRDC news feed; copy and paste that address into the box and click "Add."

Step 4.

Congratulations! You have added the SRDC news feed to your feed reader. It will now be displayed on the right hand side of Google's Reader page. There are many options provided with the reader so take some time and explore.

Step 5.

Additionally, this is basically the same process used to add feeds to other applications. All you need to do is look for a place to add a "subscription" or "feed," and it will more than likely ask for a URL to the feed. As mentioned above, "http://srdc.msstate.edu/rss/news.xml" is the URL to the SRDC news feed. If you have any trouble it's best to consult that applications help or FAQ page.

Follow us on Twitter

Step 1.

To follow the SRDC on Twitter, you first need a Twitter account. If you do not already have one, head over to twitter.com and register.

Step 2.

Once you have registered, you need to visit our twitter page located here. On our Twitter page at the top, there is a "Follow" button. Simply click the follow button to begin following us.

Step 3.

You should now be following the SRDC on Twitter! This means you will now be able to see all updates we post through Twitter on your own Twitter homepage. If you have any further questions about Twitter, it might be best to visit their Help Center to find answers.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture